In the News: Saints, Slavery, Celibacy, and more!
A round-up of the week’s religion news. Continue Reading →
Tag: malaysia
In The News: Breaking Bad, Thanksgivukkah, The Vatican, George Bernard Shaw & much more
A round-up of recent religion & media news. Continue Reading →
Words and Deeds in Malaysia
Malaysia’s Prime Minister talks of tolerance in Rome but doesn’t “walk the talk” back home
by Natasja Sheriff
In a rare meeting in July, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and Pope Benedict XVI agreed to establish diplomatic relations between Malaysia and the Holy See. It was a historic meeting of national significance for Malaysia, which until this week was one of only 17 countries in the world that had not formed diplomatic ties with the Vatican.
News of the meeting was met with skepticism in Malaysia, where the Prime Minister’s actions so rarely match his words from the international stage. Thanks to Najib, Malaysia has an global reputation for openness and inter-faith dialogue, receiving praise from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for his promotion of moderate Islam. (See here for comment by Malaysian scholar Farish Noor on the politics of the term ‘moderate.’) In a speech at the United Nations General Assembly last September, Najib urged the international community to embark on a ‘Global Movement of Moderates,’ inviting “all faiths who are committed to work together to combat and marginalize extremists who have held the world hostage with their bigotry and bias.” Some argue that it’s this type of politicking, the international face of Najib, that has contributed to a view of Malaysia that is “idealised (and outdated).”
At home the actions of the Barisan Nasional government appear to tell a different story of racial and religious politics. Relations between the government and Malaysia’s Christian community have rarely been warm, but divisions have deepened during the last 18 months. Early in 2010, a spate of firebomb attacks on churches around the country shocked Malaysians. Continue Reading →
Allah's Name
Zeinab Yusuf Saiwalla: In Muslim majority Malaysia, the government recently refused to allow the distribution of tens of thousands of bibles that were printed in the country’s main language – Bahasa Malaysia. The controversy is not new; in 2009 the Malaysian Home Ministry prosecuted The Herald, Malaysia’s sole Catholic publication, and threatened it with the loss of its printing license for the use of Allah in describing the Christian God in its Malay-language section.
The Herald defended its usage of the term Allah, arguing that it was backed by a centuries-old tradition within the Arabic language where non-Muslims in Arab countries used Allah to mean God. Continue Reading →
Allah’s Name
Zeinab Yusuf Saiwalla: In Muslim majority Malaysia, the government recently refused to allow the distribution of tens of thousands of bibles that were printed in the country’s main language – Bahasa Malaysia. The controversy is not new; in 2009 the Malaysian Home Ministry prosecuted The Herald, Malaysia’s sole Catholic publication, and threatened it with the loss of its printing license for the use of Allah in describing the Christian God in its Malay-language section.
The Herald defended its usage of the term Allah, arguing that it was backed by a centuries-old tradition within the Arabic language where non-Muslims in Arab countries used Allah to mean God. Continue Reading →
Allah’s Name
Zeinab Yusuf Saiwalla: In Muslim majority Malaysia, the government recently refused to allow the distribution of tens of thousands of bibles that were printed in the country’s main language – Bahasa Malaysia. The controversy is not new; in 2009 the Malaysian Home Ministry prosecuted The Herald, Malaysia’s sole Catholic publication, and threatened it with the loss of its printing license for the use of Allah in describing the Christian God in its Malay-language section.
The Herald defended its usage of the term Allah, arguing that it was backed by a centuries-old tradition within the Arabic language where non-Muslims in Arab countries used Allah to mean God. Continue Reading →
Two Courts
29 December 2005 From Malaysia comes a case of conflict between civilian and Shariah courts, which tangled this week over a Hindu widow’s wishes to bury her husband according to Continue Reading →